Prior to the development of the bearing race puller of the present invention, the procedure used to remove the lower race from a journal bearing housing of a coal mill was time consuming, costly, and difficult. That procedure began with the journal bearing being removed from the journal bearing housing. Welders would then heat up the bearing race in an attempt to shrink the race through a cooling effect. Two threaded bars (approximately 12 inches in length) would then be welded to opposite sides of the inner surface of the race. These threaded bars would have to be located visually. The threaded bars would then be placed through a strong back puller; nuts would be applied to each threaded bar, above the puller; and, the nuts would be tightened simultaneously. This tightening action would pull the threaded bars with the attached race in an upward direction. Frequently, force would not be evenly applied to the race causing it to become tilted and jammed when attempted to be pulled out. When this happened, the race would have to cut in half in order to remove it. Cutting the race in this manner would frequently result in cutting of the lower journal housing.
The first three steps of the aforementioned procedure would take three people approximately three to four hours to perform. The fourth step could take several more hours, in addition to the fact that the lower journal housing was often damaged.
It would be therefore desirable to have an apparatus and method that can be used to remove the lower bearing race from a journal bearing housing in a short period of time, is reliable, will not damage the journal housing, and can be used by merely one person rather than three or more.